The Freedom-Hater's Guide to 9/11

They’re not like <i>us,</i> damn it…
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And so murmur countless Americans under their breath, as they commemorate the first anniversary of 9/11.
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They would be surprised to learn that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, despite having occurred on U.S. soil, were not the opening round in a heavy weight bout, <i>Jihad vs. McWorld,</i> as the Bush Administration would have them believe.
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Nonetheless, these attacks were a complete and utter success, ingeniously accomplishing exactly what they set out to do: use the violent death throes of a fleeting American Empire to foment anti-Western sentiments throughout the Islamic world, sowing the seeds for progressive social revolution, and the subsequent overthrow of brutally oppressive regimes in Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf sultanates.
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Saddam Hussein is willing to assist in this process, albeit for personal reasons; that’s why he’s got to go.
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It’s ridiculous that Americans would deny these attacks the air of political legitimacy that they so rightly deserve. The IRA, the Basque Separatist, Hamas, now, they have political motives. But these here infidels, well, they’re just crazy, freedom-hating evildoers.
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Never mind that the concept of anyone from the Middle East professing hatred for the bedrock principles of our shared human existence is completely absurd. Do we really believe for one minute that someone from Saudi Arabia (from where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from) would really admit to hating freedom?
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This attitude stems from Americans’ obvious misperception of the <i>rentier</i> economies popular in places like Saudi Arabia. In exchange for oil-financed infrastructure, schools, and health care, the masses agree to relinquish control of the country’s mineral wealth to the kings and princes, and accept their rule by religious decree, or so the story goes. No elections, no voting, no objections, no questions, no nothing.
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And in exchange for relatively low and stable world oil prices, the U.S. provides the requisite fire power to backup these dictatorial regimes, and looks the other way as they suffocate the life right out of their people. Oh, did we mention the blatant human rights violations, including repression of women, and the occasional decapitation or public lashing?
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The tactics used by Al Quaeda on 9/11 were no different than those used by the FSLN and FMLN in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador during the 1980’s, or those being used now by the FARC in Colombia. It’s just that with Osama bin Laden and Al Quaeda, we finally met our match in an opponent that could effectively stage a sensational act of terrorism within the United States to further it own political objectives abroad.